The Students Not Profits Act will protect public dollars from abuses at for-profit colleges

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Alexis Goldstein, alexis@ourfinancialsecurity.org

Americans for Financial Reform welcomes the introduction of The Students Not Profits Act, let by Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Senator Sherrod Brown. The for-profit college industry is plagued with bad outcomes for students, has a record of law breaking and abuse, and is responsible for 34% of student loan defaults, despite only enrolling 9% of post-secondary students. Despite this, these institutions depend overwhelmingly on public dollars, and receive billions of federal dollars each year (In 2017, $14.9 billion in federal grants and loans and about $1.7 billion in GI bill money), with top executives in the sector getting millions from these public funds. For far too long, the industry has aggressively and effectively lobbied Congress to roll back accountability and oversight, even as they’ve scammed their own students and exploited federal dollars. The Students Not Profits Act is a welcome and bold step to ensure that public dollars are not supporting and enabling malfeasance.